Day after HC seeks action against judge, SSP for letting Pak ‘spy’ walk free, Uttarakhand police arrests man again

NAINITAL: A day after the Uttarakhand high court recommended action against the then additional sessions judge and then Haridwar police chief for letting a Pakistani national arrested on charges of spying and lodged in Haridwar jail walk free in 2013, the state police in a surprising turn of events arrested the man from Roorkee. Police officials said they arrested him as a precautionary measure.
The man, identified as Abid Ali, was living with his wife and three children in Mahigran locality of Roorkee. His in-laws who live closeby said Ali was an Indian citizen and was framed by his rivals who had contacts in the police department.
His 26-year-old wife Shaista told TOI, “My husband was born in this locality. A person who wanted to settle scores with him colluded with local cops to frame him in all these cases.”
However, she had no information about any of her husband’s relatives nor did she have any idea about his parental roots.
Haridwar SSP Krishan Kumar VK said, “We have arrested the man as a preventive measure under section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences) of Criminal Procedural Code. His documents are being verified and we cannot reveal more at the moment.”
The case dates back to 2010 when Abid Ali alias Asad Ali, identified in police and court records as a resident of Lahore in Pakistan, was arrested by Haridwar police. The accused was convicted by the trial court in December 2012 under various sections of IPC as well as sections 3 (penalties for spying) and 4 (for being in communication with, or having attempted to communicate with, a foreign agent) of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. The man was lodged in Haridwar district jail at the time.
Ali filed an appeal in the district court and was acquitted in July 2013 by the second additional sessions judge (whose name TOI is withholding). After the copy of the order was supplied to the superintendent of Haridwar district jail to comply with, the jail superintendent wrote two letters to then Haridwar SSP and one to the judge pointing out that in jail records the accused is a resident of Pakistan whereas no address had been mentioned in the court’s order.
In his letters, the jail superintendent repeatedly requested the SSP and the judge to act in the matter and not let Ali walk free. On the contrary, the second additional sessions judge passed another order stating that the accused has been acquitted and it is not “necessary to pass another order”.
Hearing an appeal against his acquittal, the single judge bench of Justice Lokpal Singh on Friday recommended action against the judge for failing “to watch the interest of the country” and for acting “arbitrarily and dishonestly”. The court also asked the state DGP to act against then Haridwar SSP for having “failed to discharge his duties effectively”. The accused’s lawyer has also been held guilty of submitting a fake affidavit.